The Presidency has said that Nigeria is a sovereign nation and will not be bothered about the reports from the United States, the United Kingdom and t
The Presidency has said that Nigeria is a sovereign nation and will not be bothered about the reports from the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union as regards human rights abuses.
According to the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, who was reacting to reports from the EU, UK and the US on Nigeria’s high record of human rights abuses, especially with regards to the invasion of the Federal High Court, Abuja by men of the Department of State Services who arrested the Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, last Friday, Adesina said, “We are not answerable to the US, the UK or the EU.”
“We are Nigeria, a sovereign country. Those countries and entities have issues of their own. Let them deal with their issues. Let Nigeria also deal with her internal issues. We are not answerable to them.”
When asked to respond to criticisms against the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) by Prof. Wole Soyinka, Adesina said the Nobel laureate was free to express his opinion.
“We respect Prof. Soyinka. You don’t have too many of them in the country or even on the continent. He is an avatar and he is well respected but his opinion will remain his opinion. It will be considered and if there are things to act on, we will act on them,” he said.
Adesina said the Presidency would not take the opinion of a few Nigerians as that of the majority. He said the ultimatum issued by 14 civil society groups as well as the editorial by The PUNCH was not the mind of the majority of Nigerians.
When reminded of the fact that he was also a journalist before taking up the job to be the President’s spokesman, Adesina said he would remain true to his calling.
“I am still in the media. It is just that the roles are a bit reversed… when I am done with government by the grace of God, I will still return to the media,” he said.
